Friedrich Christian Accum

“ The flame of a gas-light compared in point of brilliancy to that of a candle, is as the flame of a common oil lamp, compared to the flame of a lamp of Argand. The difference between a street, on the night of a general illumination, and any other night when the street is under the dull glimmering light of the ordinary oil lamps, is scarcely more remarkable, than the difference between a street lighted by gas, and one lighted by oil. ”

“ The gas itself has a disagreeable odour before it is burnt, and so has the vapour of wax, tallow and oil, as it comes from a candle or lamp newly blown out. This concession proves nothing against the flame of gas, which is perfectly inodorous.
The gas-light flame is perfectly steady; a benefit which persons accustomed to read or write by candle-light, are particularly capable of appreciating. With the other modes of illumination we have never the light of the same intensity for two minutes together, independent of that unpleasant dancing unsteady flame which is so harassing to the sight. ”

“ Capital, often wanting even in this opulent country for undertakings of magnitude, came to the promotion of the new art of procuring and distributing light in overflowing abundance; and already ere many years are elapsed, such has been the rapidity with which the gas light illumination has advanced, that there is not a city and scarcely a town of any note in Great Britain, in which the art of lighting by means of gas, has not been carried into effect, or in which active measures are not in progress, to participate in the benefit of this important discovery. ”

“ The new art of lighting houses, streets and manufactories, with carburetted hydrogen, or coal gas, is one of those modern discoveries on which the admirers of science and the inhabitants of this country in particular, have greater reason to congratulate themselves, than any other invention or discovery of the present age. ”

“ Now, however the existing state of things may be in this country, or in other countries, arising out of a variety of arbitrary circumstances, foreign to the natural, and in all cases the ultimately inevitable course of industry, it is a matter of justice, clear and undeniable, that every improvement in society ought to be the property of the many, and not of a few; and that it ought either to lessen the quantity of labour necessary for acquiring the means of living, or to increase the profit to be gained by continuing the same quantity of labour. ”

“ Equal justice is done both to the consumer and seller, and the public at large are at the same time most materially benefited, in as much as they are saved from paying for the expence of that waste of gas by a few, which from the former impossibility of tracing it to the offending parties, was necessarily added to the whole cost of the gas, and equally partitioned upon all the individuals who made use of it. ”

“ The most beneficial application of gas-lights unquestionably is in all those situations where a great quantity of light is wanted in a small place; and where light is required to be most diffused, the profit of this mode of illumination is the least. Hence, the lighting of the parish, or street-lamps alone, without lighting shops or houses, can never be done with economy.
It may be objected to the universality of our conclusion that the price of coal differing very much in different places will occasion a variation in the expence of the new mode of lighting. ”

“ It takes for its basis that it is an advantage to perpetuate that necessity for hard and incessant labour under which man finds himself originally placed by nature, with all the wants, privations, ignorance and ferocity, which are attendant on that condition, and that every discovery, invention, or improvement which tends to abridge the quantity required of human labour, and to augment the resources for living and enjoyment is a serious injury to society. ”

“ It is equally valuable for kitchen and parlour fires, and still more as a necessary requisite in some important branches of manufacture, so that in whatever quantity coke may be produced, it can never want a good market. The demand for coke in this capital, since the establishment of the gas-light works, has prodigiously increased. Numerous taverns, offices, and public establishments, which heretofore burnt coal, now use coke to the total exclusion of coal; and in almost every manufactory, which requires both extensive lighting and heating, gas and coke are now the means jointly employed. ”

“ The average cost at which coal gas can be manufactured on a large scale in London, is seven shillings the thousand cubic feet, deducting not only the interest of the capital sunk in erecting the establishment, rent and taxes, the cost of the coal, labour, wear and tear of the machinery, and superintendence, but all other necessary and incidental expences that may occur. ”

“ When laid on a fire they burn away with a feeble lambent flame, indeed some varieties give no flame at all, but burn merely with a red glow, somewhat like charcoal, and at length become consumed without caking. ”

“ Such clamour scarcely ever fails to be made when the extension of machinery, the application of inanimate power, and the abridgment of labour consequent on either, is a matter proposed. We are then sure to be told that the scheme of mechanical or chemical improvement is pointed against the human species, that it tends to drive them out of the system of beneficial employment and that, on the whole, the sum of the improvement is not only a less proportion of good to society, but a positive accession of misery to the unemployed poor. ”

“ The salubrity of the water we use is of as much consequence to us, as any superior excellence or saving of cost in our light can possibly be, and we ought to take care that in profiting by an improvement which science and art have discovered, we do not unnecessarily depreciate one of those primary blessings we owe to the bounty of nature. ”

“ It is necessary, in every gas light establishment, in order to know whether as much gas is obtained as might and ought to be produced, that it be previously ascertained by a series of experiments how much gas the species of coal used at the works is capable, on an average, of producing, and such data it is obvious, can only be obtained by means of an apparatus, which, like this gas metre, shall take measure of the quantities of gas supplied by the manufactory at all times, and under all circumstances. ”

“ It is not to be denied that all new improvements which interfere with and change the occupations [29] and habits of the working classes of people, must at first expose them to inconvenience and distress, against which it is in fairness the duty of society to protect them; but let not that temporary inconvenience and distress which can and ought to be provided against, be held as an insuperable obstacle to the adoption of an improvement the ultimate tendency of which it is to better the condition of mankind. ”

“ If attempts are made to convey the waste substances into the common sewers or drains of the neighbourhood, the proprietors of gas works are exposed to indictments for a nuisance at the suit of the inhabitants, and when the near proximity of any river or lake induces an attempt to convey the waste materials thither, the most serious injury may be done to the water, which becoming impregnated with hydrosulphuret of lime is rendered unfit not only for domestic but for many manufacturing purposes. ”

“ The degree of temperature proper to be adopted in gas works, where the method of decomposing coal in masses, or layers from four to eight inches in thickness, and upwards, is practised by means of the cast-iron retorts, of which a description has been given, p. 53, chiefly depends on circumstances of a local nature, with regard to the price of coal and labour, so that where in one place it may be more profitable to employ a very high temperature for the production of the gas, it may be in others quite the reverse. ”

“ In conclusion I have to observe that my object throughout has been to make the work a compendium of all the best information which the practice of the art down to the present moment has been able to afford, embodying a great number of data, with which I have been obligingly favoured by gentlemen, the most practically versant in the art, and for which I beg they will individually accept this public expression of my thanks, and obligations, as well as the results which my own labours in this department, neither few, nor inconsiderable have furnished. ”

“ One effort at the outset in erecting a gas apparatus, will reduce his annual disbursement for those two articles of prime necessity, much in the same manner, though in a greater degree, as the farmer gains by building a thrashing machine and laying aside the use of the flail.
The coal is so far from being reduced in consequence of the gas-light process, to an useless mass, that in many places immense quantities are reduced to the state of coke for the purpose of rendering [18] the coal a better fuel than it was in its natural state; for coke gives a strong and lasting heat. ”

“ It ought never to be forgotten, that it is to manufactories carried on by machinery, and abridgment of labour, that this country is indebted for her riches, independence, and prominent station among the nations of the world.
Authentic estimates have shewn, that the use of machinery in Great Britain, is equivalent to an addition to the population of upwards of one hundred millions of adult persons. ”

“ And so true is this, that if a main were to descend 100 feet below the base of the gas holder, and if the pressure of the gas in the main was only equal to sustain a column of water half an inch in height, the gas lamps could not be lighted at all, at a point so low, because the pressure of the gas is then in an equilibrium with the pressure of the atmosphere. Hence in lighting a town or district with coal gas, the best situation for the gas apparatus, as far at least as it regards the economy of the mains for distributing the gas, is the lowest part of the town or district. ”

“ The use of mechanical industry not only improves and augments the comforts of domestic life, but it also, perhaps, does as much to soften the feelings of mankind towards one another as the precepts of philosophy. It tends to engender a detestation of hard labour, and to make the world consider not what the labourer may be able to do in tasking him, but what he ought to do without detriment to himself. ”

“ The lightness of the coke produced by the gas-light manufacture diminishing the expence of land carriage, facilitates its general diffusion—the comforts of the poor are becoming materially augmented, and a number of useful operations in agriculture and the arts are beginning to be carried on, which have been hitherto checked by the extravagant price of fuel. If any additional vent were wanted for the coke, it would readily be found in the continental market; coke being better suited than coal to the habits of most European nations. ”

“ But as the gas is at present supposed to be the only object in view, for the sake of the light which it yields, the other products being only accidentally connected with its extraction, let us leave the idea of profit on them out of the question, and with the utmost latitude of concession, require them only to stand as in part for a portion of the coal employed in the process, we have still the gas, an article which performs the functions of the oil, the tallow, or the wax for which it is substituted ”

“ The collapsing gas holder is a still farther improvement by Mr. Clegg, on this part of the gas light apparatus, and certainly of all the contrivances which have been invented for collecting and storing up large quantities of gas, this machine must be pronounced to be by far the most simple, economical, and efficient. The striking advantage of the revolving gas holder which we have just been describing is, that it enables the dimensions of the tank to be very much diminished, where the nature of the ground will not admit of a cistern of great depth being sunk, except at an extraordinary expence ”

“ The art of purifying coal gas, has at length however, been carried to such a perfection, that every possibility of a disagreeable odour arising from its combustion has been wholly removed, in all cases where attention is paid to the perfect combustion of the gas, by keeping the flame of the same of a proper magnitude. ”

“ The Second General Point of View in which the gas metre claims our attention, is, its excellence as a standard of fair dealing between the seller and consumer of gas, by enabling the former to supply the gas in whatever quantities it may be required, and serving, at the same time, as a self-acting register of the quantities furnished. ”

“ The manufacturer is certain of obtaining what he has a just right to, value for the whole quantity of gas supplied, and the consumer is assured that if he wastes the gas unnecessarily, he must as he ought, pay the price of his own carelessness or profusion. ”

“ J. and P. Taylor [57] are the first persons who have resorted to oil as a substance from which gas for illumination could be easily and cheaply prepared; and in the construction of a convenient apparatus for the decomposition of this body, they have fully shewn its numerous advantages over coal, while they have afforded the means of producing the most pure and brilliant flame from the inferior and cheap oils, which could not be used in lamps. The apparatus for the purpose is much smaller, much simpler, and yet equally effectual, with the best coal gas apparatus. ”

“ When the charge of keeping the agitating shaft of the lime machine in action, is intrusted to a workman, there is no positive security against his occasionally neglecting his duty, whereas by applying the gas metre to that purpose, the manufacturer is assured beyond the possibility of deception, that when gas is produced, that gas is as certainly purified, and a saving is effected in point of labour of the expence of two men, one during the day, and one during the night. ”